1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a vehicle control apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a vehicle control apparatus and method and a related mobile terminal for offering optimized driving conditions by controlling the vehicle based on a driver's private medical information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, vehicle control devices have been able to perform operations to offer the driver optimized conditions for driving, such as adjusting the driver's seat angle or adjusting the air conditioner.
Recently, a method has emerged for ensuring safe driving even if the driver gets into trouble due to the worsening of his/her health condition by enabling the driver to control driving conditions of the vehicle in response to his/her health condition.
Specifically, in such a method, the driver's medical information is stored in his/her mobile terminal, and when the driver gets in the vehicle with the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal is connected to a head unit for controlling operations of vehicle control nodes related to the vehicle's driving conditions, such as the rearview mirror, the air conditioner, the seat, etc. of the vehicle.
The driver's medical information is transferred from the mobile terminal to the head unit, and if it is determined from the driver's medical information that the driver is not in a proper condition to drive the vehicle, a warning phrase is displayed on a screen of the vehicle that the driver is not in the proper condition to drive the vehicle.
In other words, in the conventional method, information about the driver's medical condition stored in the driver's mobile terminal is transferred to the head unit of the vehicle and, if the driver's medical condition is not proper for driving, a warning phrase is displayed on the screen.
However, since the head unit simply presents an alarm to the driver, the driver may not clearly know of his/her health condition while driving.
Even after receiving the warning, it may be difficult or inconvenient for the driver, especially if the driver is a senior citizen or a disabled person, to manually establish and change operations of each of the vehicle control nodes to change the current driving condition. Furthermore, the driver may simply choose to ignore the warning.
In addition, if the driver manually controls operations of each of the vehicle control nodes while driving, the driver may possibly get into an accident due to the distraction.